Being Prepared Takes Time: Make Your Bed

A beacon of light in the chaos of life. 

 This is a marathon, not a sprint!  It is also a two steps forward, one step back sort of thing. 

And I feel like I am starting all over again.  Because I am starting all over again, I thought I would blog about my journey.

First, let's talk about what it means to be "prepared".  "A Prepared Mom" started as my blog documenting my thoughts on emergency preparedness, mom tips for traveling with kids, quick meals, and such.  As I continued to blog, I felt like I was just reiterating the same topics over and over again, so I stopped blogging because I felt I had nothing additional to offer. 

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about our change in situation and where we are now. I thought I would start this blog again to perhaps help someone else going through this transition too.

So, here we are.  When I first started blogging, I had little kids.  Now my little kids are not so little anymore.  They are all adults.  One no longer lives with us.  One is on her way to grad school overseas, and one is still living with us but living her own life very, very independently.  We are experiencing this in between phase where sometimes we are almost empty-nesters and then other times we are back to a pretty full house.  I never know when people will be home for dinner.  I struggle with others making a mess and not cleaning it up or helping to clean up general family house mess.  So here I am.  Messy house. 2 growing puppies. 2 adult kids who can't seem to clean up after themselves.  A husband who works way too much.  Chaos.

I keep reminding myself that one day I will miss not having the kids around and without this constant craziness.

So today I will make my bed.  Since it is Sunday, I will actually strip my bed and change the sheets too. Why do I choose this one thing?  Some bloggers have chosen the "Fly Lady" method and pick clean your sink.  But I choose Make Your Bed as my one thing that I do every day.  I have a long laundry list of things I want to get done but today, I will make my bed. 

When I was a first year in college my roommate was awesome.  She was patient and so forgiving of my mess, my clutter, and me.  About 2 months into our year, I noticed that every so often she would make my bed.  One day she asked me if I would do her a favor and help her out.  She said that the mess around the room didn't bother her as long as my bed was made.  She said all I had to do was pull up the sheet and comforter and plop my pillow on top.  It didn't even have to be wrinkle free or sheets have hospital corners, just pulled up and pillow on top. I figured I was getting the better end of the deal.  I could not worry about my mess, clothes on the floor, books everywhere, piles on the desk as long as I made my bed.  She encouraged me to do it as soon as I got up. And I did.  For her.

To this day, I make my bed every morning. I have come to love this little thing I do for myself and my husband (though he pulls his side up when he gets out of bed too).  I find that no matter how horrible my day turns out, or how unaccomplished I feel at the end of the day, I can always climb into a bed that was made.  So I DID accomplish something.  Even if it was that one thing.

How does this relate to being prepared?  Moms have 50 thousand things going on and are pulled in 85 different directions all the time.  Moms also are tending to everyone all the time.  Making your bed is one little thing that takes all of about 15 seconds, 30 at the most.  This little thing prepares you mentally for the day.  It allows you to check one box right away.  This check will perpetuate into feeling more productive throughout the day.  But if you weren't all that productive, when you climb into bed you will look at your made bed and know you accomplished at least one thing that day and you will feel better for it. So why not spend the 15 or 30 seconds and straighten up your bed as soon as you get out of it?  Your future self will love you for it.